1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a production method to form an antibacterial film on the surface of an object, and more particularly to an innovative one combining cathode arc method and magnetron sputtering method.
2. Description of Related Art Including Information Disclosed Under 37 CFR 1.97 and 37 CFR 1.98
Based on currently known technologies in the coating industry, to provide both antibacterial and aesthetic effect on the surface of an object, a decorative film can be formed initially on the surface of the object. However, as this decorative film is only for the demand of aesthetic effect, it usually does not have antibacterial property. In such cases, it is usually necessary to further form an antibacterial film over the decorative film. To reflect the aesthetic effect of the decorative film, the antibacterial coating must have transparency. However, the limited transparency of the antibacterial film may still damage the aesthetic effect of the decorative film, and the antibacterial coating may be easily worn and will lose its antibacterial effect. Therefore, it is truly necessary to provide an innovative antibacterial film as a break-through technology to overcome the above problems.
If physical vacuum vapor deposition is adopted to form the antibacterial film, the problems relating to the above known coating method can be solved. Methods of physical vacuum vapor deposition mainly include thermal evaporation, magnetron sputtering, hollow cathode evaporation, cathode arc vapor deposition, and electron-beam evaporation etc; and coating objects cover metals, ceramics, plastics, textiles, glass etc. Therefore, there is a wide scope of application.
Each of the physical vacuum vapor deposition methods described above has their respective advantages and disadvantages in actual application. For example, comparing to magnetron sputtering method, cathode arc vapor deposition method features higher forming speed, but the coating surface is coarse and has the shortcomings of imperfect fineness and evenness. While magnetron sputtering method can offer even coating and high density, but the forming efficiency is lower than cathode arc vapor deposition method.
Thus, to overcome the aforementioned problems of the prior art, it would be an advancement if the art to provide an improved structure that can significantly improve the efficacy.
Therefore, the inventor has provided the present invention of practicability after deliberate design and evaluation based on years of experience in the production, development and design of related products.